Morning journal and courier., 1887-04-26
ANNUAL HOUSE HUNT.

ANNUAL HOUSE HUNT.
Preparing for the First of NIay-what
a Real Estate Agent Says-Rents NOT
Acknowledgement Houses in Demand
Labor Troubles Affect the Renting
of a Certain Class of Houses-Cheaper
Tenements Being Sought For by the
Laboring Glass.
The list of May is but four days off. The
annual house hunt has been in progress for
the past few weeks and hundreds OF people
are now scurrying around among the real es
tate agents completing arrangements for the
rental of houses and happiness prevails-we
mean among the real estate agents The
latter, however, are not as jubilant as they
have been in past years. They are COM
planning because there are not bigger crowds
of house hunters. EFF it weren't for these
COMPOUNDED labor troubles, !" said a prominent
real estate dealer yesterday, ''wed have a
much greater demand for medium class of
| tenements. Women are the great house
hunters, you know. They swarm about us
| through the latter part of April like bees. 1t
| is bore and nuisance to man, but a wo-
man enjoys it; she just revels in it. The
great call this year is for cheap rentals. This
think is owing to the unsettled condition of
| labor in the city. A year ago the persons
| who would hire nice comfortable house in a
respectable neighborhood now come to me
and say that husband is on strike and they
| wait cheap rent. They have got to change
| from their nice comfortable house to a Bud
| densiek tenement in the lower quarter of
| the city. Last year the same parties paid
me say $50 for the year; now they can only
ssWith regard to the real estate market in
general" asked the reporter, 'what is its
present condition."
Backward. The strikes and labor
| troubles which seem to have taken strong
| hold in New Haven, have had a malevolent
| influence upon building interests, an inhu-
ence it may take some time to recover from.
Men who had money to invest in real estate
and house building lock it up rather than
be subjeotto what they regard the unfair
demands of labor. The demand for houses
| is now chiefly confined to people who desire
| them for homes, not speculation nor to sub
| les them. We are looking forward to a
| Frightening up Of the market within the
| next fortnight. Our business is not near so
brisk as it was last year at this time; still it
| is better, however, than we supposed it
| would be-
ssThe season was late in beginning, but what
| little rush there is is now upon us. The
prices of rents have not materially increased,
neither have they decreased. The quarter of
| the city along upper Orange street, and out
| ~
/ is becoming, find a very desirable location.
1t is a comfortable, healthy and convenient
part of the city, and many new houses have
been erected, principally by private individ-
uals. The great call is for small houses that
rent for from 5000 to $3.50 per year. We
don't have many such, but that is what most
people of moderate income call for"
Other real estate agents were seen by the
reporter and they corroborated in the main
all of the above statements relating to the
rent demand. Still, the scramble for homes
is drawing to close, and most of those who
intend change May 1 are now beginning to
pack up their household effects in prepare
ton, and the owner of spIingless trucks be-
gins to smile-an anticipatory smile-as he
bethinks himself of the coming glad time
when he will be the king of the May.
Also the forehead of the busy housewife
begins now to assume a portentous frown
that is ominous particularly to her particular
ing. He knows what is coming. He has
been there before, and each house
cleaning time becomes fraught with
a spirit of unrest for him. He
reaches for his cigar or pipe with vain en-
deavor to wrest from it the customary solace.
He furtively scans his newspaper expecting
every moment to hear the dire summons
to be on hand on the morrow and help take
up and beat the carpets, help move the stove
and do sundry and divers other things pain
full to his soul. But if moving day is i'm
pending the man of the house apprehends a
whirlwind of woe. Pictures rise before him
of broken furniture, wrecked toilet sets, dis
mantled cooking stoves, broken mirrors and
an endless job in getting to rights again. He
sees an irate woman before him giving ZOO
orders per hour, becoming frantic
at delays and unable to eat, sleep or
even think of the fashions. He
contemplates all this fearful picture with
feelings hard to describe, and if the unfortu-
nate man be literary or professional man
he sees valuable papers and documents on
which he has bestowed his brain power scat
tered in the ash heaps or sold for waste
paper to the chuckling rag man. He sees
how vain are all things below and thinks it
good time to take his fshpole and escape
from the impending pandemonium and
while away the hours under the blue skies
and overhanging verdant hills as he watches
the dancing, limpid stream.or the dark pool
under the budding branches of the trees
and waits for the rapid rush of the speckled
trout